


Without Hope or Agenda

by Quaggy



Category: The West Wing
Genre: Dialogue-Only, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-18
Updated: 2016-02-18
Packaged: 2018-05-21 09:27:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 889
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6046504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Quaggy/pseuds/Quaggy
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam has a few questions about Josh and Donna's relationship. A silly season 7 dialog fic written after watching <i>Love, Actually</i> one too many times.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Without Hope or Agenda

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted April 4, 2006. Funny thing about looking back on a fic this old is how you change. I really don't like _Love, Actually_ all that much anymore.

“So, what took you so long?” Sam asked.

“We were both certain that the other didn’t feel the same way.” 

“For ten years!?”

“It hasn’t been quite that long! But yeah. By the time Donna woke up, I had two and a half years to convince myself she would never feel the same way about me. Nothing other than her practically screaming ‘I love you!’ could convince me otherwise.” 

“You knew for two and a half years before…. Rossyln, I’m assuming?”

“Yep. Figured it out right after she left me.”

“Of course, when he told me that, I thought he meant the second time. I felt pretty stupid when I realized that I was the latecomer to this particular party. Because you’re right, we wasted a lot of time.”

“But, Josh, why didn’t you do anything.. you know… more direct? How did you know she didn’t feel the same way” 

“She had just broken up with Dr. FreeRide. She needed space.”

“Come on, Josh! Everyone knew her heart wasn’t broken! Why did you wait so long?”

“Well… Ummm…”

“Because he knew I had a very big crush on you.”

“What!? You… I mean, I never…”

“Yeah, I was pretty relieved that you stayed oblivious, despite the fact I kept doing the right thing and asking you to double with Mandy and me. You got to give me credit for that.”

“You… you tried to set us up!”

“Yep. Best I could come up with. I couldn’t go right out and tell you without betraying Donna’s confidence. I thought you’d figure it out. Did either one of us really looked like the double date type?”

“You set me up with the woman you were in love with!?”

“I wanted Donna to be happy and I wanted you to be happy. And, I figured as long as I got to have her near by, I would be happy. Just loving her was enough. I was right about that part. For seven years, I was happy. Awww, Donna don’t cry.”

“How did I ever leave you?”

“Well, I think you were a little homesick and…”

“The second time! The second time!”

“Oh. Well, I’m an arrogant asshole and a lousy boss.”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Hey! You’re not supposed to agree! I’m STILL your boss!”

“No, you’re not.”

“No, I’m not.”

“So…”

“Oh don’t worry, Sam. I wasn’t dying of a broken heart. It was just a passing thing. Ancient history long before you started accidentally sleeping with call girls. You can only bang your head against a brick wall for so long.”

“Which raises the question… And it was only the one time!”

“Which raises the question… Why didn’t I get tired banging my head for seven years? Sam, I wasn’t. I never expected Josh to return my feelings. I guess, I felt the same way he did about me, not that I knew that. I was just happy loving him. For a long time, it was all I needed.”

“Yeah, the whole love ‘without hope or agenda’ was the real reason it took us so long.”

“Oh. Hey, ‘without hope or agenda.' That’s from _Love, Actually_ , right?”

“Ok, Sam… I know that quote because I’ve watch that movie a dozen times with Donna and that part always makes her all teary. The fact you know that quote just disturbs me.”

“Umm… I watch it for the porn stand-ins.”

“Sure you do.” 

“Yeah, well… I would have thought you two would relate to the Prime Minister and his assistant story.”

“No, that’s not us. She brought him cookies _and_ coffee everyday. Donna only brought me coffee when it looked like I was going to be fired.”

“Surprising that it wasn’t everyday.”

“DONNA!”

“Truthfully, besides the whole 'hope and agenda' line, the in-love-with-your-best-friend’s-wife guy wasn’t really us either.”

“No. We were the two little kids.”

“You mean Sam and Joanna?”

“Seriously Sam. I know the kid had your name, but you’re scaring me here.”

“You just compared you and Donna to a couple of ten-year-olds, and I’m the scary one?”

“Sammy’s just happy to be in love. It’s only when he thinks he’s going to lose her that he does something about it. He may be a little lost about showing his devotion, but he does it in the end. Dramatically. What part am I not supposed to relate to?”

“So you’re Sammy and Donna’s the unobtainable ideal?”

“No, no, no. I’m Joanna, no doubt about that, but she’s no unobtainable ideal. Joanna loves Sammy just as much as he does her. Just because we don’t follow her story, she looks indifferent. She feels the same way. We get to see her big show of devotion. The first person she points to at the end of their song is Sammy. She _turns her back on the audience_ so she can point to him. You don’t turn your back on the audience. Not ever. And she did. No one told her to and it’s a safe bet she knew she wasn’t supposed to, but she did it anyway…”

“Ok, Donna. I think Sam’s eyes are beginning to glaze over.”

“The point is that she had her own way of letting him know how she felt. He just didn’t get it…. Not unlike someone else we all know.”

“Ok, are we talking about Sam again… OW!”


End file.
